DUBLIN — A gaggle of masked males allegedly obtained onto the Dublin Excessive Faculty campus on Friday, adopted a 14-year-old freshman right into a locker room and beat him bloody, giving him a damaged nostril and concussion, the boy’s mom advised this information group on Tuesday.
College students had been simply getting out of sophistication and the campus was emptying, save for some scholar athletes, coaches and directors. The boy was exterior the locker room at about 3:30 p.m. Friday selecting up his soccer jersey and getting ready for observe, his mom Cherie Barfield mentioned.
Then immediately, he was confronted by a bunch of masked assailants allegedly led by a classmate’s mom, who referred to as out to attempt to determine Barfield’s son. The mother or father was together with her daughter, a Dublin Excessive freshman, Barfield mentioned.
“When he seemed up and checked out her, there have been 5 males coming from both aspect of her with ski masks and hoodies on,” Barfield mentioned. “The 2 buddies he was with scattered and he instantly jumped up and went into the locker room, considering he was protected.”
However the masked males adopted the 14-year-old into the locker room, and began beating on him, Barfield mentioned. He was thrown into the lockers, thrashed round and jumped at first by one, after which all 5, of the males, she mentioned. The lady and her mom allegedly adopted the assailants into the locker room and captured the assault on video.
The boy fought again, however finally was overcome by the group and left bloodied on the bottom, his mom mentioned. The district’s superintendent mentioned a head coach was close by, together with different college students, they usually stopped the assault. However Barfield claims nobody sprung into motion to assist her son.
Barfield was unaware of the assault till she heard phrase from one other mother or father whose baby noticed the 14-year-old bleeding from the assault within the locker room. Barfield referred to as 9-1-1 and rushed to the college to seek out her boy.
She says a dispatcher advised her no police officer was on campus as a result of they had been dispatched to an incident in one other a part of the city, and that there was no authorities instantly accessible to verify on the 14-year-old.
By the point she arrived on campus to seek out her son, she mentioned she discovered him on their lonesome on the locker room bench, bleeding and reeling from the assault with nobody tending to him. She mentioned he struggled to talk with paramedics once they arrived as a result of his head was pounding from a concussion.
Nobody from the college contacted her concerning the assault on her son, she claimed.
“I didn’t know if my son was alive, I didn’t know something,” Barfield mentioned. “I didn’t know what occurred to him, to what diploma.”
In an announcement on Tuesday, Dublin Police Chief Nate Schmidt mentioned the suspects haven’t but been recognized, however had been all caught on video surveillance on the college. The suspects are believed to be between 16 to 19 years previous, police mentioned. The age of the mother or father remains to be unclear, and police have made no arrests but.
“It’s not believed this was a random incident and Faculty Useful resource Officers proceed to interview witnesses and accumulate video proof to find out a motive and the way the sufferer, suspect, and Dublin Excessive Faculty mother or father know one another,” Schmidt wrote within the launch.
The after-school incident outraged the college’s principal and has pressured the district to evaluation its insurance policies on campus security and scholar supervision.
Dublin Unified Faculty District Superintendent Chris Funk mentioned the principal and 4 assistant principals had been all on campus throughout the time of the assault, which police mentioned occurred at about 3:30 p.m. The final bell on Fridays is at 2:20 p.m., based on the college’s bell schedule. Funk mentioned directors are on campus till the college workplace closes at 4:30 p.m. every day.
“The those who got here on campus had been on the campus up to now and knew the campus, clearly, and had been in a position to get again to the boys locker room,” Funk mentioned in an interview.
Funk mentioned this incident “requires us to take a look at our insurance policies and procedures and make some changes.” He added that the college has made fast modifications to protocols, guaranteeing the college’s locker rooms are to be locked always, particularly after college students are finished altering.
He mentioned there was no campus police, or scholar useful resource officer, on campus at the moment as a result of they’re stationed all through all space colleges and transfer from campus to campus all through the day. Even when there was an officer on responsibility, he mentioned, they usually wouldn’t be stationed in entrance of the locker room at the moment of day, and as an alternative can be someplace towards the entrance of the college in a zone with increased foot site visitors.
“I don’t assume an SRO would have prevented that from taking place,” Funk mentioned.
Funk added that the district is reviewing the college’s time of supervision and the security of the locker room all through the day and after college.
Barfield mentioned her household is taking authorized motion towards the college and has employed an lawyer to take care of the aftermath of the assault on her son. She mentioned she desires the younger lady and mom who allegedly antagonized her son and introduced the lads to the campus to be banned from the college and faraway from the district.
Her son won’t return to the highschool till it’s protected, even when which means lacking his first soccer sport as a operating again and linebacker for the Gaels, she mentioned.
“No one was there to do something about it,” Barfield mentioned. “There aren’t any heroes on this story.”
